NFLNFLThe Cleveland Browns’ star pass rusher has requested a trade. But he wants to compete and get paid, making the list of ideal suitors somewhat short.
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By Diante LeeFeb. 3, 8:47 pm UTC • 6 min
As if Super Bowl week weren’t sure to give us plenty of story lines on its own, Cleveland Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett officially requested a trade Monday morning, stating that “my desire to win and compete on the biggest stages won’t allow me to be complacent.” On the heels of some wild NBA trades, the best edge rusher in the NFL is now on the market.
Garrett wasn’t shy about his frustrations at the end of the regular season and refused to entertain the notion of a roster pivot or total rebuild in Cleveland. At 29 years old and with two years remaining on his current $125 million deal, Garrett has only one more shot at a big payday and (understandably) wants to land someplace that can pay him at market rate and make playoff runs. For the Browns, the pain of moving a player as good as Garrett should be assuaged by getting a haul of multiple top-100 picks in coming drafts—and that’s the only path this franchise can take to speed up the rebuilding process in the disastrous wake of the Deshaun Watson era.
There are only a handful of teams that can satisfy the desires of all parties involved in this trade, even though every general manager with an ounce of sense should be calling Cleveland. Here are the franchises that can trade the requisite draft capital to bring Garrett in, afford his current and future deals, and still compete for Super Bowls in the immediate future.
I don’t know whether the Chargers are my favorite potential landing spot for Garrett, but I can’t imagine a team that should be more desperate for difference-making talent than Los Angeles. The 2024 season was a massive success for this franchise, even with the disappointment of its playoff flameout, because L.A. was able to succeed even with its hands tied financially, with more than $60 million in dead cap.
Now that cap space is opening back up: Veteran edge rusher Khalil Mack is coming off the books, and there’s some sense in shopping Joey Bosa around this offseason, too. There’s an immediate need for a player like Garrett here, and there’ll still be plenty of space available to bring in quality starters at receiver, corner, and the offensive trenches—the other biggest needs on the roster. Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter has already proved that he knows how to maximize his defense if there’s enough pass-rushing juice up front, and a player like Garrett can be transformative.
Even if getting Garrett wouldn’t immediately catapult the Chargers to the top of the AFC, it would bring them much closer to eye level with Buffalo, Baltimore, and Kansas City—and that gives your franchise quarterback a puncher’s chance to make a deep playoff run.
Well, almost. For the purposes of this discussion, we’ll leave Chicago out of this, because there’s a lot I still need to see from the Bears and new head coach Ben Johnson. For the other three, though, you have to believe that a player like Garrett would get you in arm’s length of the NFC crown.
After Detroit was bounced out of the postseason and lost both coordinators, the Lions may (understandably) be concerned about their grip on this division and their place in the NFC hierarchy. The best way to combat brain drain and stagnation is to aggressively seek top-end talent, and Garrett might be the final piece to solidify Detroit as a Super Bowl favorite in 2025. This team is locked in with Jared Goff for a while, but it still has plenty of cap space available to take big swings thanks to savvy recent work in both the draft and free agency. In 2025, if Aidan Hutchinson goes back to being one of the most productive defensive players in the NFL and is playing opposite another top-five pass rusher, they’ll have all the necessary ingredients to get over the hump in the next few seasons.
The Minnesota Vikings have proved that they can get wins in the double digits, even if their quarterback situation is a question and the defense has holes. Defensive play caller Brian Flores knows every trick in the book to manufacture a pass rush, but could you imagine what he might accomplish with an edge-rushing rotation built around an athlete like Garrett? The front office knows that a top-end pass rush would change their station in the conference, which is why general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah invested so heavily in the position last offseason, bringing in Jon Greenard and drafting Dallas Turner. Acquiring Garrett wouldn’t just give Minnesota a DPOY-level talent; it would slot the rest of the players into more suitable roles, lower the need to find top-end players at other defensive positions, and give presumptive starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy a greater margin for error.
If there were ever a platonic ideal for an edge rusher in Green Bay, Garrett is it—and the Packers have chased physical attributes and a raw skill set like his in multiple drafts. Lukas Van Ness and Rashan Gary were supposed to be their superstar rushing tandem, but the former hasn’t turned a corner in his development and the latter is really better suited to be a secondary rusher. Bringing Garrett in would be a bit more tenuous for the Packers than for the other teams we’ve named in the division because they have several young players with expiring contracts coming up, and that brings up tough conversations about whether Garrett truly fits into their timeline. Strictly in the 2025-26 season, though, bringing in a player like him might make them the favorites in the NFC.
The timeline for the Broncos is a little longer than that for the other squads we’ve discussed here. There’s still more than $30 million in dead cap stuck on the balance sheet from the Russell Wilson trade, and this team didn’t look close to competitive in the playoffs this year. On the other hand, the core of this roster is already pretty strong and quarterback Bo Nix is on a rookie deal, so there’ll be even more opportunity to put the finishing touches on the team in the 2026 offseason and beyond. Garrett would need to be convinced that Denver can satisfy his desire to win as early as possible, but pairing him with defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and another DPOY-level talent in Patrick Surtain II should be enough to keep the Broncos in the playoffs. Plus, head coach Sean Payton proved this year that he’s still one of the best offensive play callers in the game. Those elements would give this team a chance to compete as Garrett advances into his 30s.
How much more help does quarterback Jalen Hurts really need?! I’m sure nobody wants to see this team on the list, as the Eagles already have one of the best rosters in football and are preparing for their third Super Bowl appearance in the past seven years. However, Philadelphia will have needs along the defensive line since Milton Williams and Josh Sweat are potentially on the way out and Brandon Graham is nearing retirement.
Philadelphia technically has the cap space to acquire Garrett, but doing so would leave little room to build depth throughout the rest of the roster. In a Garrett transaction, the Eagles would probably need to offer up one or more players for cap relief purposes, and also because of how late this team will be drafting in April. But if the choice comes down to a team’s ability to win—and if Garrett is able to exercise enough leverage to pick his own potential destination—I wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to join a superteam and enjoy the path of least resistance.
Diante Lee joined The Ringer as an NFL writer and podcaster in 2024. Before that, he served as a staff writer at The Athletic, covering the NFL and college football. He currently coaches at the high school level in his hometown of San Diego.
